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A hypothesis

Alan Greenspan admitted on national TV that the U.S. government can never go broke, and can pay any debt, simply by creating money. Why does the truth not wake anyone up? Here is one possible explanation…

Trump explained — correctly — that because the U.S. government prints its own currency, the U.S. government will never have to default on its debt. The government can print more money to repay the debts, which would cause inflation but not a default.

That’s a true statement, except for the inflation part. In the next paragraph the Washington Post says this…

Since the federal government operates at a deficit, any repurchases if government debt would have to be funded through borrowing, and that money would have to be borrowed at an increased interest rate, canceling out any savings.

Thus, the Washington Post says the U.S. government “can print more money to repay the debts,” and also that the government is forced to borrow to “repay the debts.”

This is a contradiction, and it is deliberate. The most effective lies don’t conceal the truth, or deflect attention away from the truth. Instead, they use contradiction to create cognitive dissonance, in order to generate an emotional response that the liar can control.

Wikipedia defines cognitive dissonance as “the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or who performs an action that is contradictory to one or more beliefs, ideas, or values, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values. A person who experiences inconsistency (and thus dissonance) tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to try to reduce this dissonance.”

Reducing the dissonance involves an emotional process of bundling, labeling, and shelving.

EXAMPLE 1: Every shred of evidence proves that 9-11 was an inside job. (A false flag attack.) For many people the conflict between obvious truth and government lies causes cognitive dissonance, which people cope with by dismissing the truth as a “conspiracy theory.” This lets people wrap up their cognitive dissonance in a convenient mental bundle so they can forget about it. The greater the contradiction, the greater is the urge to justify it with a bullshit label.

EXAMPLE 2: Most people believe that the U.S. government is “bankrupt.” People also admit that the government can “print” endless dollars. This contradiction creates cognitive dissonance, which people deal with by wrapping the contradiction in a mental bundle that they label with words such as “entitlements,” or “unsustainable,” or “hyperinflation,” and so on.

The irrationality of the person on the left is exceeded only by his certainty that he is logical and correct, and that his garbage is “common sense.”

The skillful liar understands this. He controls people by using contradiction to create confusion and cognitive dissonance, and then he offers a label that the listener can use to irrationally resolve the cognitive dissonance.

Clergymen understand this principle too. If a clergymen presents his dogma in a clear, coherent, and logical manner, he will cause others to ask for proof of his claims. But if he offers gibberish and contradictions, he sounds more convincing.

In short, the skillful liar knows that he will be exposed if he presents only lies. Therefore he presents contradictions. He controls people’s minds not by lying, but by issuing contradictions, and then controlling how people resolve the contradictions. The more he issues self-contradictory garbage, the more his garbage is emotionally perceived as “truth.”

The Greenspan quote does not wake people up, since it contradicts the endless propaganda that the U.S. government has a “debt crisis.” The truth creates cognitive dissonance, which people resolve with emotion-laden bullshit.

As a result, people remain impoverished and enslaved.

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One thought on “A hypothesis”

Another question is: Why did Greenspan tell it like it is? From what I know, he is (or was?) a member of the Ayn Rand cult (goddamn Jews!) and you know those SOBs always defend the rich and belittle the poor.